Fixing Filipino Food

Fixing Filipino Food

In my month or so of intense flirtation with Filipino food, I’ve come to a few tentative conclusions about the food of the Philippines. I express these evolving notions prior to going to happy-stomach’s house for a Filipino feast, and I’m fully prepared to modify them based on that experience and the correction of those who know more about this fusion food than I do. And it is a fascinatingly fused cuisine, with elements of native island cooking, other cuisines of Southeast Asia, China, Spain, perhaps Britain, and the U.S.of A.

Here are some generalizations:

Filipino restaurant food seems a direct outgrowth of home cooking. I suppose the same could be said made for much restaurant food from many cultures, but on the regular French, Spanish, or Italian menus, there are all kinds of food that, although it could be cooked at home, almost never is: for instance, souffle, paella, and wood-fired Sicilian pizza. Filipino restaurant food is more closely aligned with what comes out of mom’s kitchen: in speaking with Grace the Pulled Pork Pitmistress, happy_stomach and others who grew up Filipina, it seems their parents made for them dishes similar to what you’d find at an average Filipino restaurant: lumpia, kare-kare, sinigang, etc. As they explained to me what they ate at home, I heard almost no dishes that I had not seen on a menu in the past 30 days.

Filipino food is comfort food. Though pig’s ears and tripe may be challenging to gringo palates, the spices keep a low profile, and the basic flavors of the foods are allowed to come through, which is pretty much a characteristic of most comfort food, whether macaroni and cheese or steak or chocolate (to name some common “comfort foods” of this country).

Filipino food usually needs “fixing” for my North American palate. This is probably the most controversial point I’m going to make. I have found it daunting to face down a whole bowl of longaniza, the sweet red sausages, or menudo or even my beloved lechon kawali. However, slicing up the pork products, adding some veg and some heat, make them bloom for me. This is not, of course, the traditional Filipino way to eat these remarkably savory and delicious meats, but that’s how I make them right for me.

Behold meat-o-ramas at Adobo Express and Unimart:





One last point, Vital Info has expressed his amazement at the Czech Paradox (they eat high cal, and are yet so thin). There must also be a Filipino Paradox: they eat five meals a day (big breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch, merienda, dinner…and then some drinking foods after dark, so that’s actually six meals a day), and they seem quite slender (this generalization confirmed by Grace).

David “Lumpia” Hammond

David, thank you for sharing your thoughts on filipino food. Being of filipino descent, I found your summary/conclusions to be pretty accurate.

Wherever you may find and feast on filipino food, the same dish will be prepared differently depending on the different hands and backgrounds of those preparing it. Filipinos from different regions tend to use ingredients more commonly found/used in their part of the islands or world, and as a result, offers varying tastes.

The cuisine of the Philippines is a blend of traditional, native cooking and the best aspects of foreign influences. Recipes and techniques have been adopted and then adapted to the Filipino taste. Filipino cooking is tasty without being too spicy, simple but not sparse, different but not strange, and satisfying without being overwhelming. As Filipinos go out to the rest of the world and as the rest of the world visits the Philippines, new ideas will be brought to the Filipino kitchen. It is this meeting of the East and West with a steady and constant evolution of traditional dishes that is Filipino cuisine.

For the past few months I've been following with interest this LTH exploration of Philipino cuisine. I've experimented with the basics at home over the years: pancit, lumpia, chicken adobo...the adobo being a clear winner.

Just wanted to mention Andrew Zimmerman's "Bizarre Foods" Philipino episode on Travel Channel(which we now get due to Bright House Indy as opposed to Comcast's assyness): I'm one of the legion who appreciate the culinary programming on Travel Channel hella more than the pandering ick offered by Food.

Zimmerman really seems involved with the cultures he's investigating...despite the name of the show...and I definitely grokked the Philipino one.